Second National Conference on Language, Discourse and Pragmatics

 Ahvaz,

Jan 23-25, 2013

Systemic Functional Linguistics: As an Innovative Approach to Language and

Gender Study

Abdullah Gharbavi 

Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi 

Pame Noor University

 

Outline of presentationAim and purpose of the studyInspirational ideas led me to do this studyPrevious research and backgroundResearch questionsHypothesesMethodologyResults and discussionConclusionPedagogical implicationsSuggested solusions 

The purpose of the present study is to find out whether Iranian high school English textbooks are sexist textbooks which discriminate between male and female students based on their sex. To this end, four English textbooks currently taught in the Iranian high schools were examined for that purpose.

1 .Aim and purpose of the study 

• A conversational topic in a language institute, when I used to teach English there: Do teachers treat girls and boys equally and fairly?

2 .Inspirational ideas led me to do this study

• Despite increased awareness of gender bias and attempt to counteract this, the problem persists, within education as in other contexts (Swann, 1992, p.34).

• The problem of gender bias language has been around us for centuries and still does exist in the dot com era(Swann, 2005).

• Generic nouns and pronouns (such as you and we) were observed not to be true generic ones because they are often associated with male pictures. See the following picture which has been taken from (English Book 2, p.13)If you want to take a photograph, you must have a camera.

Is this fair?

3 .Previous studies

Porreca, 1984 Peterson & Kroner, 1992Reese, 1994Lesikin (2001)Ansary & Babii, 2003

4 .Research questions1. Are males more visible than females in the written

texts? 2. Are males more visible than females in the

illustrations of the textbooks?? 3. Are males in the position of theme and rheme as well

as the last stressed element of clauses are more than those of females. In other words, do males have more social prominence than females as represented by the textbooks?

4. Do male nouns and pronouns outnumber their counterparts in all participant roles? In other words, do men perform more and different social roles than those of men, as it is represented by the textbooks?

5 .Hypotheses:In order to gain robust results and to text the

data statistically, the following four hypotheses were proposed:

1. Males are more visible than females in

texts of the textbooks. 2. Males are more visible than females in

illustrations of the textbooks. 3. Males in the position of theme and rheme

as well as the last stressed element of clauses are more than those of females. In other words, males have more social prominence than females.

4. Male nouns and pronouns outnumber their counterparts in all participant roles. In

other words, men perform more and different social roles than those of women.

6. Methodology 6.1 Materials: Four current EFL/ELT textbooks, i.e. English Book 1, 2, 3, and Learning to Read English for Pre-university Students 6.2 Data collection procedures: For content analysis(frequency analysis): (1) The frequencies of male and female mentions in texts and illustrations were counted and tabulated. For linguistic analysis (thematic and semantic role analysis): (1) First, all the clauses containing at least one gender-specific noun or pronoun (e.g. Maryam has an English book) were collected. (2) Second, these clauses were categorized by gender and by theme/rheme distinction. And the same clauses were examined to see if they contain last stressed gender-specific nouns or pronouns. 3. Third, all gender-specific noun or pronouns performing particular semantic or participant roles were counted and tabulated 6.3 Data analysis procedures: To analyze the data the following descriptive statistics were used: a) frequency and percentage and b) chi-square test

7. Results & Discussion Hypothesis 1: Males are more visible than females in texts of the surveyed textbooks. Table 7.1 Frequency of male and female visibility in the text of all the four books

Book title Male Female Total F % F % F %

English Book 1 161 74 57 26 218 100 English Book 2 107 69 49 31 156 100 English Book 3 136 71 56 29 192 100 Pre-university English Book 44 65 24 35 68 100

Total 448 71 186 29 634 100 Note 1: All percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number so that they add up to 100% . Note 2: F=Frequency, % =Percentage

Testing the first hypothesis: Table 7.2 Chi-square test for males and females' visibility in the texts. Sex O E O-E (O-E)2 (O-E)2

E Males 448 317 131 17161 54.14 Females 186 317 -131 17161 54.14 108.28

P=0/05 d f=1 X2=108.28 O=observed frequency E=expected frequency X2= Chi- square test df= degree of freedom At the .05 level and with 1 degree of freedom, the critical Chi-square is 3.84. Since the obtained Chi-squares (108.28) is greater than the critical value of Chi-square, we can safely accept the hypothesis that males are more visible than females in texts of these textbooks

Hypothesis 2: Males are more visible than females in the pictures of the textbooks. Table 7.3 Frequency of males and females visibility in the Pictures of all the four text books

Book title Male Female Total F % F % F %

English Book 1 103 77 31 23 134 100 English Book 2 80 78 23 22 103 100 English Book 3 78 70 35 30 113 100 Pre-university English Book 23 92 2 8 25 100 Total 284 76 91 24 375 100

Testing the second hypothesis Table 7.4 Chi-square test for sex category and visibility in the pictures Sex O E O-E (O-E)2 (O-E)2

E Males 284 187.5 96.5 9312.25 49.67 Females 91 187.5 -96.5 9312.25 49.67 99. 34

P=0.05 df=1 X2=99.34 The observed chi-square is larger than the critical chi-square. Therefore, the second hypothesis is confirmed at the 0.05 level of significance

Hypothesis 3: Males in the position of theme and rheme as well as the last stressed element of clauses are more than those of females. In other words, males have more social prominence than females as represented by the textbooks. Table 7.5 Frequency of gender specific nouns and pronouns in all the four textbooks

Note 1: Theme = Psychological subject of a clause; rheme = noun or Pronoun developing the subject. Note 2: Last stressed element is the last constituent of the clause that bears the information focus of a clause. For example: This book is Mr. Ahmadi's

Thematic structures

male Female Total F % F % F %

Theme 211 80 54 20 265 100 Rheme 31 71 13 29 44 100 Last stressed element

11 74 4 26 15 100

Total 253 79 71 21 324 100

Testing Hypothesis 3: 7.6. Chi-square test for sex category and theme, rheme, and last stressed element Sex Thematic

structures O E O-E (O-E)2 (O-E)2

E Males Theme 211 207.11 3.89 15.14 0.08

Rheme 31 34.39 -3.39 11.50 0.34 Last stressed element

11 11.73 -0.73 0.54 0.50

Females Theme 54 57.90 -3.9 15.21 0.27 Rheme 13 9.62 3.38 11.43 1.19 Last stressed element

4 3.28 0.72 0.52 0.16

3.54

P=5 d f=2 X2=3.54 Since the obtained chi-square is greater than that of the critical chi- square, the second hypothesis is supported.

Hypothesis 4: Male nouns and pronouns outnumber their counterparts in all types of participant roles. Table 7.7 Frequency of participant roles of gender-specific nouns and pronouns in all four textbooks

Participant roles

male Female Total F % F % F %

Actor 35 70 15 30 50 100 Senser 11 34 21 66 32 100 Token 25 53 23 47 48 100 Sayer 33 69 16 31 49 100 Possessor 31 68 15 32 46 100 Total 135 60 90 40 225 100

Note: Actor = a doer ; senser = a person's feeling, thinking or seeing; token = a person having an attribute or relation to another; sayer= a verbaliser; possessor= owner

Testing hypothesis 4 Table 7.8. Chi-square test for sex category and participant roles Sex Participant

Roles O E O-E (O-E)2 (O-E)2

E Males Actor 35 30 5 25 0.84

Senser 11 19.2 -8.2 62.24 3.25 Token 25 28.8 -3.8 14.44 0.51 Sayer 33 29.4 3.6 12.96 0.45 possessor 31 27.6 3.4 11.56 0.42

Females Actor 15 20 -5 25 1.25 Senser 21 12.8 8.2 67.24 5.26 Token 23 19.2 3.8 14.44 0.76 Sayer 16 19.6 -3.6 12.96 0.67 possessor 15 18.4 -3.4 11.56 0.63

14.04 P=5 df=4 X2=14.04

The obtained Chi-square is far much greater than the critical value of Chi-square, thus the last hypothesis was accepted at the 0.05 level of significance.

8. Conclusion Both in texts and illustrations women suffered from under-

representation. Close examination of various semantic roles revealed subtle gender

stereotyping roles and females were under-represented and overloaded with traditional stereotypical roles whereas males appeared only as cooperative.

Theme is the most important part of the clause from the point of view of its representation of a message in a sequence (Halliday, 2004). The last stressed element (end-focus) of a clause is also important. These positions bear the information focus and have more communicative prominence. Males have been found to dominate these thematic positions of the clauses.

Results revealed that the books studied were biased in terms of all the categories investigated.

9.Pedagogical implications

One implication of this study might be to raise awareness and consciousness in EFL material developers regarding gender prejudiced materials so as to help them initiate modifications regarding such inequities after almost 20 years of publishing the same gender-bias loaded materials with no change.

Material developers and curriculum designers should pay attention

to and consider the guidelines of gender-fair material development

Teachers, in addition, if made aware can deal with gender-biased materials logically and present them in an unbiased way (Sunderland et. al., 2001).

10. Problem solution

1. We attempt to bring these linguistic imbalances to the textbooks writers’ attention who are responsible for designing and writing the textbooks.

2. The writers of the textbooks should attempt to let more females to

function as actors, sayers and possessors.

3. let both men and women authors to have roles in writing and designing textbooks.

4. The following rules should be observed when we write or speak.

Avoid the generic use of "He". Instead recast it into the plural Sexist Non-sexist Give each student his paper as soon as he is finished

Give students their papers as soon as they are finished

Eliminate the He pronoun Sexist Non-sexist The average student is worried about his grades.

The average student is worried about grades.

Replace the masculine pronoun with "you" Sexist Non-sexist If the student is dissatisfied with his grade, he can appeal

If you are dissatisfied with your grade, you can appeal

Replace the masculine pronoun with "he or she" Sexist Non-sexist If the student is dissatisfied with his grade, he can appeal

Student who is dissatisfied with his/her grade can appeal

Use plural indefinite pronouns (definite pronouns are always singular: anyone, anybody, someone, somebody, everyone, everybody, one, each, every) Sexist Non-sexist Anyone who wants to go must bring his money tomorrow

All those who want to go must bring their money tomorrow

Use the double-pronoun construction (use sparingly) Sexist Non-sexist Every person has a right to his opinion. Every person has a right to his or her

opinion. Use de-gendered terms for both males and females. Sexist Non-sexist actress actor waiter/waitress wait help steward/stewardess flight attendant hostess host

De-gender, don't re-gender Sexist Non-sexist Chairman=chairwoman(re-gendered) Chair

Chairperson(de-gendered) The word "Man" and its derivations should be avoided Sexist Non-sexist cameraman Camera operator, photographer clergyman Priest, clergy fireman firefighter policeman Police officer spokesman spokesperson weatherman forecaster

Thank you for being fair

Any questions? Any comments?